A MAN has been ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register after touching a 15-year-old girl in a changing room cubicle.

Darren Stawman, of Hollins Row, Slaithwaite, was told by magistrates that he had to sign the register after admitting sexually touching the teenager as she tried on clothes in a shop in Huddersfield’s Kingsgate Centre.

He was also slapped with a community order and ordered to 150 hours unpaid work for the offence as well as using threatening behaviour, intimidating a witness and assaulting a police officer.

Huddersfield magistrates heard that the 34-year-old had first met the teenager, who cannot be named, when she visited her grandmother.

Teresa Hughes, prosecuting, said that Stawman had asked the teenager to go out with him and when she refused had got hold of her phone number and started calling and texting her.

Magistrates heard that on July 30, the girl had been in town shopping with her friends when Stawman approached them.

Ms Hughes said: “The defendant picked up a top and suggested she tried it on. He talked about her having a nice body and about her underwear.

“She went into one of the cubicles and he followed her in, grabbed hold of her and shut the door.

“He got her pinned in the corner and tried to kiss her, he then rubbed his body up against her hips.”

A friend of the victim described her as upset and disturbed when she left the shop.

She said Stawman then followed the teenager to the bus station, produced the dress she had been trying on and threw it at her.

Magistrates also heard that on a separate occasion, Stawman, who has problems with drink and drugs, threw a bottle in the face of an ex-girlfriend when she drove past in a car and threatened her new boyfriend.

The court heard that Stawman later threatened his ex about giving evidence against him and also punched a police officer in the face as he was arrested at his Slaithwaite home.

Carl Kingsley, defending, said his client, who appeared via video link from Leeds Prison, where he serving a sentence for other offences, had pleaded guilty to all the charges.

He said: “While his behaviour was inappropriate and unpleasant, it wasn’t highly serious.

“He certainly isn’t a serious sexual offender and he has no propensity to committing offences of this type – this was a one off.

“The other matters were an accumulation of nonsense and bad behaviour.”

Chairwoman of the magistrates bench Mrs Martin told Stawman: “What makes these offences worse is that the victim was only 15, that a bottle was used in the threatening incident and that a police officer was harmed.

“Two of these offences were committed while you were on bail. I don’t find any mitigating factors.”

Magistrates ordered Stawman to sign the sex offenders’ register within three days of his release from custody.

His community order included two years supervision and 150 hours unpaid community work.

Stawman was also ordered to pay £250 towards court costs.